Late last week, Chicago ghetto-house wizard DJ Funk announced he’ll release a career-spanning collection called Gold: 20th Anniversary Greatest Hits Collection. The three-CD set will come out on a label calling itself Dance Mania Records—though it’s not the Dance Mania Records that helped birth ghetto house in the late 80s, folded in the early aughts, and was revived last year by original owner Ray Barney and Dance Mania producer Victor Parris Mitchell. “[Neither] Ray nor myself are involved in this release,” Mitchell says. “Not sure how this is possible, as Ray is the sole legal owner, and has all the rights to his label name, merchandising, etc.” DJ Funk’s manager, Stephanie Battista, claims otherwise. “There are two divisions of Dance Mania Records as of now and we all work with each other,” she says. Whatever the label situation turns out to be, Gold is scheduled to drop on Fri 9/5.
In April, Gossip Wolf reported on Lo Motion, a new label from Brandon Boom and Jeremiah Chrome of The-Drum. This week, Lo Motion dropped its first release since a digital compilation in May: Only One is an EP of ghostly, grown-and-sexy R&B from Chicago singer Dre Green. We’re particularly partial to the drip-drop production from local duo Hawaiian Gardens on “Walk Right Through”—a slinky number with “radio hit” written all over it! The EP is on sale via Lo Motion’s Bandcamp for $5.
Last year Reader readers voted the Adler Planetarium’s Adler After Dark series “Best After-Hours Event at a Museum,” and on Thu 8/21 it’s hosting a David Bowie-themed party called Space Oddity that promises to have as much to say about literal stars as it does about rock stars. It includes astronomy panels, an Intergalactic Bowie Scavenger Hunt, and DJ Heaven Malone spinning tunes from Ziggy Stardust, and attendees are encouraged to wear costumes. Look for a furry Thin White Duke by the moon rocks!
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